Prevalence of depressive symptoms in stroke patients: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: Sequelae are frequent in patients with a history of ischemic stroke and result in decreased quality of life, increase in morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs. One often overlooked complication of ischemic stroke is its association with depression and depressive symptoms. Objectives and methods: This cross-sectional study aims to assess the prevalence of depression and depressive symptoms in patients with previous ischemic stroke followed in the neurovascular outpatient clinic of a tertiary hospital in São Paulo, Brazil, through the application of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) filled in by the patients. Casuistics and results: A total of 173 participated in the study, but only 154 answered all PHQ-9 questions. Mean age was 52 years; 56.82% were women; 44 patients (28.6%) had a score ≥ 10, resulting in sensitivity and specificity for post-stroke depression of 86 and 79% respectively; 118 (68.2%) did not present depression or depressive symptoms before the stroke, 33 (19.1%) had previous symptoms and 22 (12.7%) did not answer this specific question. Discussion and conclusion: The results indicate that depression is an important comorbidity in patients with ischemic stroke. In this cohort, most patients did not have depressive symptoms before the stroke. Further studies are important to better assess this association as well as to determine strategies to prevent and to manage this condition.